Sluggish Warriors stampeded by angry Bulls

ORACLE ARENA — The Chicago Bulls were railroaded by the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night and lost by 42 points. So coming off that pathetic loss to one of the worst teams in the league, the Bulls took out their aggressions on the Warriors.

Chicago ran the show on Friday and embarrassed Golden State in the final game of its seven-game homestand and the final time wearing those infamous short sleeved jerseys.

The Bulls outscored, outrebounded, and outplayed the Warriors in a 113-95 victory that included a 36-point lead at one point for the Bulls. All five of Chicago’s starters scored in double figures, led by Luol Deng who had a game-high 23 points.

Guard Stephen Curry who scored just eight points on 2-of-13 shooting told SFBay that the team notices when the crowd starts to leave, and feels bad for losing in front of the fans.

Warriors guard Stephen Curry

“It’s just embarrassing obviously. You’re at home on national TV, NBA TV and we’re in our ugly jerseys…I shouldn’t have said that but it’s just one of those things where a lot of attention is on us and we don’t show up to play. We want to give our fans a show and we want to give them something to cheer about. We want to make it fun for them to come to the game. When they’re leaving with six to seven minutes left, it’s not a good night.”

The Warriors were down by 10 points early in the game but went on a 17-8 run to finish the first quarter trailing, 28-27. Harrison Barnes opened the second quarter with a two-handed slam, giving the Warriors their first lead of the game. That lead though, was soon forgotten.

The Bulls went on a 16-6 run to finish out the second quarter of the game and the Warriors went into the locker room at half time down by 10 points. For Golden State the worst was yet to come.

Opening the third, the Bulls put up eight straight unanswered points, and finished the defining quarter outscoring the Dubs 38-17. Carlos Boozer scored 11 of his 21 points in the third and finished the quarter with not one, but two mean dunks.

Bulls forward Carlos Boozer

“I thought we came out aggressive on both sides, offense and defense. We were locked in to what we were doing, we executed pretty well. We did a great job on defense trying to make their best players take tough shots. The great thing about it, we kept it up virtually the whole game and it was fun to watch us play like that.”

The Warriors are a team that lives and dies by the three. This was the most blatant example of the latter as Golden State missed its first 11 3-pointers. It wasn’t until Kent Bazemore’s 28 footer from the top of the arc with 5:54 remaining in the game that the Warriors made their first shot from long range.

The Warriors have at least one 3-point basket in their last 710 games. It is the second-longest active streak in the league to Phoenix (713) and the fourth longest in NBA history. Curry and Klay Thompson rank first and third in 3-pointers made yet they combined to go 0-for-9 from downtown.

Some Warriors fans decided that heading into the final frame a 31-point deficit was too much to overcome and started to leave the arena. The rest that remained were clad in red as the Bulls contingent of fans was well represented. Much of that loyalty comes from their glory years in the 1990’s when Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and company led Chicago to six NBA titles in the decade.

Bulls center Joakim Noah

“There are always a lot of Bulls fans and we really appreciate the love wherever we go. Obviously this organization has a big legacy. Probably a lot of these Bulls fans have been fans of the Bulls since they were little kids watching MJ, Scottie, Dennis (Rodman) and all those guys. So it feels good to have Bulls fans all around the country.”

Warriors coach Mark Jackson said that he was disappointed with how the team played and that they got outworked in every category.

Warriors coach Mark Jackson

“Loose balls, rebounds, screens, moving without the basketball – any way you want to measure playing with force, we failed tonight.”

The sixth place Warriors who lead the seventh place Rockets by only 1/2 a game in the standings will play in Houston on Sunday. Jack knows it’s another huge test for the Warriors who are 0-3 against the Rockets.

Warriors guard Jarrett Jack

“Hopefully we can throw this away and we’re playing a tough Houston team. If we come out here with the same effort it’s going to be the same result.”

The Warriors three game road trip continues on Monday at New Orleans and the trip ends at San Antonio. Golden State hasn’t beaten the Spurs in their building since 1997, before the franchise drafted Tim Duncan.

Notes

Bazemore scored a career-high 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting. … Curry ended his career-long streak of making a 3-pointer in 53 straight games. … The win at Golden State ended a five-game road losing streak for the Bulls. … Former Warrior Nate Robinson scored 20 points and had seven assists for Chicago. In two games against Golden State, Robinson averaged 21.5 points, 5.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds shooting .552 from the field and .455 from three.